France's consumer price index rose slightly in May

According to the report from INSEE, in May 2020, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) increased by 0.1% over a month, after a stability in the previous month. Unchanged in April, service prices rose by 0.4%, as those of tobacco (+0.4% after +0.0%). The drop in energy prices (−2.1% after −4.2%) was lesser. Contrariwise, food prices slowed down, to +0.5% after +1.8%, and those of manufactured products edged down by 0.1%, after a stability in the previous month.

Seasonally adjusted, consumer prices were stable in May, after −0.1% in April.

Year on year, consumer prices rose by 0.4%, after +0.3% in the previous month. This slight rise in inflation came from an acceleration in services and tobacco prices, partly offset by an accentuation of the drop in the prices of energy and manufactured products and a slowdown in food prices.

Year on year, core inflation rose, in May, by +0.6% after +0.3% in the previous month. The Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices (HICP) increased by 0.2% over a month, after a stability in the previous month; year on year, it rose by 0.4%, as in the previous month.

Compared with the provisional estimates published on May 29, 2020, the month-on-month change in the CPI was up by 0.1points, those month-on-month in the HICP and year-on-year in the CPI and in the HICP by 0.2points.